Sig Christenson is a veteran military reporter who has made nine trips to the war zone. He writes regularly for Hearst about service members, veterans and heroes, among other topics. He is also the co-founder and former president of Military Reporters and Editors, founded in 2002.

Darnall Army Medical Center

05/30/2013

FORT HOOD — The Army psychiatrist accused in a Fort Hood shooting
spree that left 13 dead and 32 wounded asked a judge Wednesday to let
him act as his own attorney, but the request was put on hold.

Col. Tara Osborn expressed concerns that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan wasn't physically up to the task of mounting his own defense, and ordered him to undergo a physical later this week.

Paralyzed
from the chest down after being shot four times by police at the end of
the Nov. 5, 2009, melee, Hasan has been hospitalized at least once.
Raising concerns in a 32-minute hearing, Osborn noted that Hasan's lead
defense attorney, Lt. Col. Kris Poppe, has said his client isn't able to sit for long periods of time.

The
delay marked the latest in a series of twists in the case, the most
recent a lengthy battle over whether Hasan could wear a thick beard in
violation of Army regulations.

That fight pitted him against the former judge, Col. Gregory Gross,
who last fall ordered Hasan to shave. Gross was yanked from the case
Dec. 3 after an appeals court raised doubts about his impartiality.

As
in other proceedings since last summer, Hasan entered the courtroom in a
wheelchair wearing his beard, a green watchcap and fatigues. Security
was tight outside the courtroom, where MPs carried M4 rifles.

Long
surrounded by rectangular metal containers, the courthouse is now
ringed by Hesco barriers. The barriers hold earth, sand, gravel and have
been used to protect American bases in the war zone. They originated as
a defense against flooding.

Fort Hood spokesman Chris Haug said the barriers were installed after a security review.

“Do you understand your right to counsel?” Osborn asked Hasan.

“Yes, ma'am,” he replied in a firm voice.

Poppe
replaced a retired Army judge after Hasan parted ways with him almost
two years ago. At the time, Hasan said he wanted to be represented by
Poppe, who has experience in capital murder cases.

When Osborn asked if he had changed his mind about being represented by Poppe, he replied: “That's correct.”

Hasan
huddled briefly with Poppe at one point in the hearing, but it became
clear that he and his defense team were at loggerheads.

Hasan did
most of the talking, with Osborn asking the questions. Poppe rose late
in the hearing and said Hasan had made it clear that he wanted to
dismiss the defense team. Telling the judge that he didn't know what
role the defense could play, Poppe said his team had been placed in “in a
very awkward circumstance.”

Hasan, in turn, balked at having a physical done by a doctor at Darnall Army Medical Center on Fort Hood, saying he objected “because of my previous experiences.”

Osborn
wanted a new physical because almost a year has passed since a doctor
last saw Hasan.She warned Hasan that representing himself in court was
only part of an attorney's job. It also includes preparation after the
trial, work she called “more taxing” than simply consulting with his
lawyers.

Hasan agreed to undergo an examination at Darnall after
telling the judge he wanted “a relative assurance that they're
independent in their evaluation.” He said he would take the physical if
it were done by anyone other than Lt. Col. Larry Wright.

Hasan said the higher-ranking Wright could exercise unlawful command influence in the trial, a claim prosecutors disputed.

Asked by Osborn if he would undergo the physical if another doctor did it, Hasan replied, “I do not object.”

09/24/2012

Fort Hood rampage suspect Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was in an Army hospital Monday and was expected to remain there through midweek.

Post spokesman Chris Haug said Hasan was admitted Saturday to Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood. A news release said he is in good condition and is expected to be released within 48 hours.

No information on why he was hospitalized was provided because of
federal rules on patient confidentiality, but Hasan's former civilian
lawyer said his health has been precarious since being badly wounded at
the end of the shooting spree Nov. 5, 2009.

“His condition is serious,” retired Army Col. John Galligan said of Hasan, who was shot four times and is paralyzed from the chest down.

Hasan is charged with killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in the mass shooting at the Soldier Readiness Center at Fort Hood.

Hasan has been kept at Bell County Jail in Belton, 22 miles east of Fort Hood, since he was released from San Antonio Military Medical Center, where he was treated for his wounds in the weeks after the shooting.

Haug said Hasan's hospitalization would not affect the schedule for
his upcoming capital murder trial. The trial, which was to have started
Aug. 20, has been stalled as attorneys skirmish over the former
psychiatrist's bid to wear a scruffy beard.

Hasan has said he grew the beard out of duty to his Muslim faith, but
beards have been forbidden in the military, with rare exceptions. In a
recent hearing, he told his judge that the beard was central to his
faith and that he wasn't “trying to disrupt the proceedings.”

04/01/2012

FORT HOOD — Sgt. 1st Class Sgt. Jeremy Ricketts made life-and-death decisions in Iraq that were learned in training and three combat tours.

But after experiencing a concussion — the kind of injury reportedly suffered by a GI now accused of killing 17 Afghans — Ricketts had a big problem.

Back home in Killeen after being flown out of Iraq in October, he told therapists at Fort Hood's Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic that he couldn't deal with people “standing and blocking” the aisles of a Wal-Mart.

“They would say, ‘Why would you worry about what anyone else was doing?'” said Ricketts, 33. “And I was like, I don't know. I don't know who they are, so therefore, you know, if I don't know them, I don't know what they're capable of.”

Hurt in a vehicle accident, he was diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, a traumatically induced physical disruption of brain function that can include unconsciousness and altered mental states at the time of the incident.

Ricketts is one of more than 320,000 U.S. troops in the past decade to suffer TBI. His case, like most of those diagnosed, is classified as “mild,” but symptoms can linger.

Reports that Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, 38, of Lake Tapps, Wash., had mild TBI launched speculation about its possible role in the Afghan shooting incident. But Bales, a four-tour veteran, had problems that included troubled finances and allegations he attacked a woman and was involved in a hit-and-run accident. He also might have had post-traumatic stress disorder, but mild TBI sparks a flurry of behavioral woes that include anxiety and PTSD symptoms, ranging from frustration, irritability and depression to reduced stress tolerance, guilt and denial.

PTSD occurs when a person is traumatized by a close call, while TBI is an actual brain injury, said Dr. Mark Goulston, a former professor at UCLA's Neuropsychiatric Institute and author of “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder for Dummies.”

“I also think soldiers would prefer to admit to TBI than PTSD because my brain got injured,” he said.